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Whatever Rodgers said, when Scott Brown took his position back in the heart of this mayhem there appeared to be two and sometimes even three of him out there just to balance up the numbers in Celtic’s favour.

Wherever the ball broke, Brown was there. Making tackles, winning headers, mopping up anything that moved.

It was a 40-minute masterclass in the art of midfield combat and even though the winning goal was expertly curled home by sub Odsonne Edouard, this was without question Brown’s derby.

And yesterday, what it took was for Brown to puff out his chest and lead Celtic home just when it seemed their seven-year reign of undisputed domestic dominance was in considerable danger.

Jamie Murphy and Scott Brown (Image: SNS Group)

Make no mistake, had Rangers made the most of this opportunity against 10 men and in their own backyard, then the title race would have been very much on.

Graeme Murty and his players will have plenty of time now to reflect on that and to ask themselves why they were unable to take advantage of a situation which was presented to them on a plate. But they need only look to the standard of Brown’s performance to find the answers.

The truth is Celtic’s captain wanted this win more than any of them and was simply not prepared to accept anything less.

Murty will have to challenge these players now and demand more from each of them when they face Celtic again in a Scottish Cup semi-final which, now his hopes of achieving something miraculous in the league is gone, will most probably determine his own future in the Rangers hotseat.

Win it – and go on to lift the silverware – and Murty might still have a chance of extending his stay beyond his current night watchman role.

(Image: SNS Group)

But if Rangers are to stand any chance of making amends at Hampden, then Murty’s players will have to, at the very least, match Brown’s drive and determination to succeed. Yesterday, they fell some way short. This must have been a sore one too for Scotland boss Alex McLeish who will name his first squad this morning for friendly matches against Costa Rica and Hungary, knowing Brown’s name has been scratched from the list of available options.

Perhaps in time Manchester United’s Scott McTominay will grow into Brown’s role or maybe Greg Docherty of Rangers will make the step up. But Docherty was also given a lesson yesterday as Brown took control of this match and wrestled it out of the Ibrox side’s hands.

He will unquestionably go on from here now to lift a seventh successive title as Celtic’s captain and the more of these honours he gets his hands on, the safer his place in the club’s history becomes.

As it stands, he may already be second only to Billy McNeill but the more days he has like yesterday, the closer his own status will get to that of the grand old man of Lisbon.

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And yet for long spells of this derby, Celtic were in all kinds of bother.

Behind after less than three minutes when Josh Windass had pounced on Dedryck Boyata’s stagefright to slam Rangers into the lead, the scene was set for a real test of the champions’ mettle.

Boyata’s error-strewn performance gave Rangers all the encouragement required to pour forward in search of more but they were knocked out of their early stride by Tom Rogic’s stunning equaliser.

Their blossoming confidence was badly jolted by this blow too as well as the loss of stricken defender David Bates who had the misfortune of planting his ankle under Rogic’s standing foot as the Aussie aimed for goal.

His replacement Fabio Cardoso was almost as rusty as Boyata and no more reliable.

Because even though Daniel Candeias fired Rangers back into a first-half lead, Cardoso allowed himself to be rolled by Moussa Dembele just before half-time and once the Celtic striker had muscled his way through onto Brown’s searching pass, there was only ever going to be one end result.

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When Dembele’s lob dropped over Wes Foderingham and into the keeper’s empty net Celtic were ready to assume control of the contest.

But Simunovic threw a spanner in the works 10 minutes after the restart when he jabbed an elbow into the face of Alfredo Morelos.

It was a nasty moment for the Colombian but it was not the most painful of his derby day experiences.

That would come in the dying minutes when he managed to miss an open goal from only two yards out, jabbing the ball onto the base of Scott Bain’s right-hand post after Celtic’s keeper had clawed out another effort from Windass. Morelos will have nightmares about this miss for some time to come but it probably summed up a Rangers performance which promised much but delivered very little.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

When the chance was there for them to make a statement they lacked the conviction and the desire needed to press it home and make it happen.

No, it was Brown who was determined to make a difference out there and after Simunovic made way his moment had arrived.

If Rangers are to recover from this bruising affair and go on to pose a genuine threat to Celtic’s monopoly then first they will have to find a way of dealing with Brown.